Become an Independent Property Agent in France

Who We're Looking For

The Independent Property Agent Role — What You Need to Know

The role in French law

There is a distinction here that matters, and most recruitment pages skip it.

To practise as an agent immobilier in France you must hold a carte professionnelle — the “carte T” — issued by the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie. Obtaining one requires a qualification at Bac+3 level in legal, economic or commercial studies, or three years of full-time salaried experience under an existing card holder, or ten years' experience without those qualifications. It also requires a financial guarantee and professional indemnity insurance. For most people arriving from outside the French property industry, that route is closed.

The route that is open is the one we recruit for: agent commercial immobilier — in English, an Independent Property Agent. You do not hold a carte professionnelle. You work under ours. You need no diploma and no previous property experience.

Under French law (loi n° 70-9 du 2 janvier 1970, known as the loi Hoguet) there are things you may not do in this role. You may not hold or receive client funds. You may not give legal advice. You may not draft private agreements other than mandates on our behalf. Those responsibilities sit with the agency, and we handle them.

What you'll do

You represent Town & Country Property France in your own area. Day to day, that means:

• Finding and winning new instructions from vendors in your sector
• Carrying out verbal valuations for prospective vendors
• Preparing listings — photographs, descriptions, measurements
• Accompanying viewings, including with buyers travelling from overseas
• Guiding a sale from offer through to signature at the notaire, with the agency behind you

You choose your own hours and you work from home. There are no sales targets and no minimum activity requirements.

Who this suits

This role suits people who are self-directed. Nobody sets your day for you, which is the attraction for some and the difficulty for others.

It tends to suit those who are already settled in France and know their area — its villages, its schools, its markets — because local knowledge is what vendors respond to. It suits people comfortable holding a conversation with a nervous first-time buyer as readily as with a French vendor. Previous experience in property helps but is not required; people arrive from teaching, the forces, hospitality, trades and sales.

It does not suit someone who needs a predictable monthly income from day one. Commission arrives when a sale completes, and French property transactions take time.

How you're paid

You are self-employed. There is no salary and no retainer.

You receive a share of the agency commission gained from the successful completion from your sales only.

We will not tell you what you might earn. That depends on your market, your effort and conditions outside anyone's control — and any figure we quoted would be a guess dressed up as a promise.

What you need

Required by French regulation:

1. Registration on the RSAC — the registre spécial des agents commerciaux
2. RC Pro insurance — professional indemnity cover
3. Continuing training — French law (décret n° 2016-173 du 18 février 2016) requires 14 hours a year, or 42 hours across three consecutive years. You source your own training. Your certificates are filed with the CCI at card renewal.
4. The right to live and work in France as a self-employed person. Requirements differ depending on your nationality and when you arrived. Please check your own position with the French authorities before applying — we cannot advise on immigration matters.

Required by us:

5. A car. You will cover a wide rural area. This is our requirement, not a legal one.
6. A good level of French. You will be speaking directly with French vendors and buyers, not through us.

Note the two that are not on this list: no diploma, and no previous property experience.

What we provide

• Our carte professionnelle, which you work under
• An established brand and an existing flow of English-speaking buyers
• Your listings published across our property websites and on international property portals — see our current French property for sale
• Back-office support through the transaction, including the paperwork we are required to handle

We do not provide your continuing training, for the reason given above.

How to apply

Tell us where in France you are, what you have done before, and why the role interests you. We read every application and reply to all of them.

or call us for a no-commitment chat on 05 45 98 00 98

If you do not yet have the right to work in France as a self-employed person, this is not the right moment to apply — and we would rather say so now than after you have invested time in it.